GlobalPlatform compliant systems, in particular secure elements, may be used to provide mobile communication units, such as mobile phones and smart phones, with a range of functions, such as performing secure credit card transactions and other communications requiring a high level of security.
A wireless service provider (also referred to as a secure element issuer) needs to be able to access the Issuer Security Domain (ISD) of the system in a number of situations, e.g. in order to perform communication, to perform setup operations, or to install, update and delete programs and functions etc. To gain access to the ISD, the issuer needs a set of keys corresponding to a set of keys stored within the system. These keys may be handled by a Trusted Service Manager (TSM). Accordingly, communication with the TSM is necessary for accessing the ISD. However, such communication requires that a connection to the TSM exists. In particular for mobile devices, this is not always the case.
US 2007/0095927 A1 describes a system and method where a mobile device manufacturer receives secure elements from a vendor and installs them in mobile devices as part of the manufacturing process. During installation of a secure element, the manufacturer securely passes an issuer-specific seed value to the secure element. Based on the seed value and a unique identifier of the secure element, the secure element generates a set of keys and stores them in its memory. With knowledge of the unique identifier, the issuer may then generate a corresponding set of keys to gain access to the secure element. However, in many cases the manufacturer will not know already at production time which issuer will actually be managing the mobile device later on, such that selection of the appropriate secure seed value will be difficult. Furthermore, a given issuer will not know the identifiers of the secure elements it will need to manage upfront, and will accordingly not be able to prepare the needed management scripts etc.
There may be a need for a simple and reliable way of obtaining access to a Global Platform compliant system, such as a secure element, without sacrificing confidentiality.